We used to conduct seminars before the pandemic, instead of webinars, the online version of seminars. When the pandemic came in, this trend changed entirely. Slowly and steadily, we started preferring cost-effective online webinars over offline seminars.
Webinar marketing has become our go-to marketing strategy to attract, engage with our audience, and generate more leads. It is beneficial for both the host and the attendees.
Webinars unlock new opportunities to engage with your audience, host large meetings, meet new people, and more. However, the main challenge comes when choosing the best webinar software platform.
Which Is the Best Webinar Software Platform?
There are tons of webinar software platforms out there. I have mentioned the best webinar software for small businesses, startups, etc.
Riverside
Riverside is a popular platform that allows you to record podcasts and videos in high quality with ease.
It comes with all basic to advanced features that make podcasting even easier and accessible for everyone. Popular brands, including Spotify, VaynerMedia, and Marvel, have used this tool.
You can use Riverside FM for different purposes. According to Riverside, you can use it for Podcasting, Live Shows, Webinars, Customer Testimonials, Internal Communications, Split-screen Videos, and Virtual Conferences.
One of the most highlighting features of Riverside is its studio-quality audio. We all know the importance of good audio and video quality in webinars. And Riverside makes it possible with its powerful features.
You don’t need any kind of professional audio equipment while recording with Riverside. Yet, if you have, then it is a cherry on the top of the cake. In addition, it is much better than Zoom and other webinar software platforms. In addition, Riverside is the first platform to offer demanding audio and video recording features in a single software.
Therefore, it lets you record high-quality podcasts easily. While recording podcasts with Riverside, you also see connection strength on your display. The red sign states that the connection is unstable, and the green shows it is perfect and stable.
Many popular webinar software platforms use cloud recording, which means they record and store recordings in cloud storage. But Riverside is different from others.
It works on the local recording functionality. Simply put, they store recordings in their own computers to provide the best output.
With Riverside, you can record videos in 4K to offer the best viewing experience to your users. Besides, it ensures that your audio isn’t choppy when your connection is unstable. Your audio will always be smooth and freeze-free because of the local recording feature.
Furthermore, it lets you record uncompressed 48kHz WAV, so your audio quality never decreases. This way, you can offer the best listening experience to your users.
One of the best features of Riverside is that it continuously keeps uploading your audios and videos to the cloud storage. So, you can download them in seconds when you finish recording.
Riverside comes with a Media Board feature that lets you add effects to your live webinars while recording. You get access to different effects, such as clapping, the audience laughing, vocals, and more.
When we record podcasts or shows with other platforms, we first record the podcast, then edit it with the help of third-party editing tools. Eventually, this makes the whole process lengthy and confusing. But Riverside has got you covered for this too. Riverside comes with a Magic Editor feature that helps you save hours of editing work.
With the Magic Editor, you can easily add logos, change the background, change the grid layout, etc. After doing all this, you can get your new podcast ready with the Export button.
Repurposing the content on different platforms is also important, and Riverside knows this. Riverside has a Clip feature to create clips from your podcast and distribute them on various platforms, such as Instagram, Tiktok, Vimeo, etc.
Key Features Of Riverside
- One of the critical features of Riverside is that it lets you record both audio and video in high quality at the same time.
- Riverside has an excellent feature that transcripts your podcasts and videos into the text to make highlights from them.
- One of the best features of Riverside is that it keeps uploading your audios and videos to the cloud storage while recording for instant downloads.
- Riverside has a Clip feature that lets you create clips from your podcast to upload on different platforms, such as Instagram, Tiktok, Vimeo, etc.
- This platform comes with a Producer Mode that lets you keep an eye on the webinar without joining as a participant or attendee. Produce Mode is helpful to ensure that all the settings are correct.
- Riverside also has a Screen Share Recording feature to let people collaborate and share presentations with the attendees.
- Another key feature of Riverside is that you can easily schedule an event and invite up to eight guests with a single click.
- Riverside comes with a Magic Editor feature that helps you easily add logos, change the background, etc., of your video.
- The Riverside application allows you to easily host and record sessions from your smartphone.
Pros:
- Studio-quality audio
- 4K video recording
- Stable connection
- Magic Editor feature
- Affordable
- Excellent tech support
Cons:
- Voice echo
- Confusing UX
Pricing
Riverside is a Freemium Webinar Software Platform. It has a free plan and three premium plans. You can create a free account from their website and start using the basic features. Besides this, it has three premium plans: Standard, Pro, and Enterprise. The Standard plan costs $15 per month with unlimited recording. The Pro plan costs $24 per month with unlimited recording, 4K video recording, and more. In the end, the Enterprise plan is a custom plan, and its pricing varies based on your requirements. You can check each plan’s features from the official pricing page.
GetResponse
GetResponse is an email marketing service that allows you to create, send, and track your email campaigns. It offers a variety of tools and features to help you grow your customer base. GetResponse also offers a Webinar Builder feature with the Email Marketing tool. Webinar Builder by GetResponse allows you to grow your business by organizing more webinars and live shows.
GetResponse helps you connect with your audience anywhere, anytime, to increase conversions and engagement. Additionally, this comes with many exceptional features that make conducting webinars easier. One of the best parts about Webinar Builder is that you can host unlimited webinars monthly or daily without any limitations.
Additionally, up to 1000 people can join your webinar and listen to you about your product, journey, etc. One of the best features of GetResponse is its Share Stage feature. The Share Stage feature is similar to sharing the stage with an influential personality in seminars. Now, GetResponse has also introduced this feature in their webinar tool.
Furthermore, GetReponse’s Webinar Builder feature lets you store 20 hours of webinar recording in their cloud storage. One of the best parts about Webinar Builder is that GetResponse offers it. The Webinar Builder tool comes with many email marketing features to promote your events. Webinar Builder tool lets you create and schedule webinars in a few easy steps and no time.
It also allows you to send automated emails to your audience, reminding and inviting them about your event. They also have a huge library of pre-designed email templates that makes it easier. It also comes with an On-Demand Webinar feature. You can use the On-Demand Webinar feature to offer your pre-recorded webinars to your audience in exchange for their email.
Webinar Builder has many more advanced features. For instance, you can increase your webinar reach by live-streaming the webinar on platforms like Facebook and Youtube. Besides, you can also promote your products in the webinar with the help of CTA buttons.
As mentioned earlier, interactive features are a must in webinar platforms. This platform also offers interactive tools like chat, surveys, and polls to interact and collect feedback from the attendees. It has other basic features, like an annotation board, screen sharing, recording, etc.
Key Features Of GetResponse’s Webinar Builder
- One of the key features of Webinar Builder is that you can host unlimited webinars with zero limitations.
- Webinar Builder also comes with an intuitive analytics dashboard to check KPIs like average attendance time, devices used, attendee locations, and survey results.
- Another key feature of Webinar Builder is its huge library of ready-made registration pages and invitation email templates.
- You can also promote your products in between the webinar with the help of CTA buttons and integrate multiple payment gateways.
- Webinar Builder also offers interactive features like live chat, surveys, and polls to interact and collect feedback from the attendees.
- You can use GetResponse’s built-in marketing tools to promote your event and get more registrations for your webinar.
- GetResponse also allows you to automate email reminders, invitations, and event follow-ups with ease.
- It also lets you record your webinars and share them with your audience in exchange for their email.
- This platform also lets you broadcast your webinars to Youtube and Facebook to increase your webinar reach and generate more leads.
Pros:
- Host unlimited webinars
- Integration with email marketing features
- Detailed webinar analytics
- On-demand webinars
- Voting feature
- Built-in A/B testing
Cons:
- No Q&A feature for on-demand webinars
- Some live features are difficult to use
Pricing
GetResponse is a Freemium Webinar Software. You can sign up for a free account from their official website. It also has three premium plans: Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, and eCommerce Marketing. The Email Marketing plan costs $15.58 per month. The Marketing Automation plan costs $48.38 for one month. At last, Marketing Automation costs $97.58 per month. One thing to note is that you get Webinar Builder and other email marketing features, not separately. In short, you are paying for all features, including email marketing features.
Livestorm
Another best webinar platform on the list we have is Livestorm. It is undoubtedly one of the best webinar software. Livestorm is an online feature-rich webinar platform that allows you to create and host webinars in a few steps. It is a cloud-based software that can be accessed from any device, including smartphones. This platform has many advanced features that let you host large webinars and meetings. It has commendable features for every stage of conducting a webinar, from the inviting stage to the measuring stage.
Livestorm comes with an intuitive dashboard that lets you easily create an event and name it in easy steps. You can also get an option to change the speaking permissions. For instance, you can choose whether only your team members and guests can speak or everyone. Moving further, you can also add your team members to give them access to make changes and lead the event.
One of the highlighting features of Livestorm is its beginner-friendly dashboard to create user registration forms. You can add custom fields to your registration form and collect as much information as possible. Yet, we suggest making it short and sweet. You also get access to the Event Room, where you can enable/disable some features like private chat, Q&A, polls tabs, etc.
One of the most difficult parts comes when you need to design the registration pages. But, Livestorm has made this easier by offering some pre-made registration pages. You can choose from different pages and customize them per your brand’s voice and colors. After that, you can embed those registration pages anywhere on your website. You can also get a shareable link for that.
One of the most highlighted features of Livestorm is its automation capabilities. It allows you to automate certain things when a user performs a specific action. As of now, you can set rules on these actions: start event, play a video, end event, and redirect. Hopefully, you will see more new rules to automate actions. Another best feature of Livestorm is Instant Meetings. Other than hosting large webinars, you can also use this platform to host instant meetings.
You need to name the meeting room, edit the URL, and add team members. Voila! You are done. Livestorm allows you to create small meetings with two people and large webinars with up to 3000 live attendees. Most importantly, it provides in-depth analytics of your event to get an overview of their performance. You can even export all data from your events, including registrants’ data, messages, and questions.
Key Features Of Livestorm
- Livestorm features an intuitive dashboard that lets you create small meetings and large webinars in a few clicks.
- This platform comes with multilingual support, which means you can use this platform in your suitable language to create webinars.
- One of the key features of Livestorm is Event Automation which lets you play a video automatically when the event starts or in between.
- Livestorm allows you to conduct small meetings with two people and large webinars with up to 3000 people.
- This platform integrates with 1000+ tools, such as Slack, Salesforce, Pipedrive, HubSpot, Zapier, and many more.
- Livestorm features an easy-to-use dashboard to create registration forms and add custom fields to collect more info about your registrants.
- This platform automatically records all webinars and meetings and offers unlimited cloud storage to store and access them anytime.
- Livestorm comes with many advanced features, and one of them is RTMP ingestion to create 1080p streaming setups with software like OBS, etc.
- Another key feature of Livestorm is that it supports browser-based webinars to make the process smoother and easy for attendees.
- This platform lets you sync your data with popular CRMs software, such as HubSpot CRM, Salesforce, Pipedrive, etc.
Pros:
- Multi-language support
- 1000+ integrations
- Suitable for all types of meetings
- Easy-to-use interface
- Unlimited cloud storage
- RTMP ingestion
- In-depth analytics
Cons:
- No private chat for speakers, guests, and hosts.
- Incompatible with Powerpoint presentations
- Quite expensive
- Doesn’t work on iPad Pro
Pricing
Livestorm is a great webinar software. Following this, it also comes at expensive pricing. It is available for free but with some limitations. Besides this, it has three premium plans: Pro, Business, and Enterprise. The Pro plan comes at $88 per month with a limit to add up to 500 contacts a month and 100 to 500 live attendees. At the same time, the Business and Enterprise plans are custom plans.
ClickMeeting
ClickMeeting is a cloud-based webinar platform that allows you to host and manage your webinars from one place. It enables you to create webinars easily accessible to hundreds and thousands of people around the globe. This platform has many advanced features that allow you to do video conferencing, online meetings, and webinars to showcase your products to your audience.
With ClickMeeting, you can host five types of events: Online Meetings, On-demand Webinars, Automated Webinars, Paid Webinars, and Huge Virtual Events. ClickMeeting allows up to 1000 to attend your live webinar. One of its highlighting features is paid webinars that let you monetize your knowledge and build an audience.
Furthermore, it allows you to host on-demand webinars to get users’ email addresses by sharing pre-recorded webinars. One of the best features of ClickMeeting is its Breakout Rooms feature. This feature lets you split the main meeting room into smaller ones.
Like Livestorm, ClickMeeting offers some powerful automation features to automate your webinars. For example, you can set a particular time to play a video or promote your products with the help of CTA buttons. It enables you to promote your products and offer special discounts during the webinar to generate some sales. You can use different payment gateways, such as PayU, GPay, Apple Pay, etc., to accept payments. This makes the payment process smoother and more straightforward.
ClickMeeting comes with an excellent feature called Edu Mode. Edu Mode is a perfect feature to create a distraction-free virtual class with the students. In Edu Mode, students can only see the tutor, but the tutor can see all the students present in the virtual classroom. This will hinder all the distractions from the virtual class and let students focus on the screen.
ClickMeeting also has other essential yet interactive features, such as Live Chat, Polls, Q&A, Surveys, etc. It also allows users and hosts to share their screens and enable collaboration. You can also record webinars and create on-demand webinars of them. It also lets users present their presentations in front of their teams, guests, etc. Coming over to ClickMeeting’s Communication and Promotion features. ClickMeeting software offers some ready-made registration templates. You can choose one amongst many and customize it to match your brand colors and voice. This platform integrates with three tools: Zapier, PayPal, and Moodle.
Key Features Of ClickMeeting
- You can use ClickMeeting for video conferencing, online meetings, and webinars to showcase your products to your audience.
- With ClickMeeting, you can host a webinar with up to 1000 people and get more sales by promoting your products with CTA buttons.
- ClickMeeting software offers some pre-designed and customization registration and email templates.
- ClickMeeting also has other essential features, such as Polls, Q&A, Surveys, Screen Recording, Screen Sharing, Presentations, etc.
- One of the key features of ClickMeeting is its Edu Mode which lets you create distraction-free virtual classes with your students.
- It also lets you host paid webinars and integrate different payment gateways, such as PayU, PayPal, GPay, Apple Pay, and more.
- ClickMeeting also allows you to stream the same webinar on Youtube and Facebook to make it easily accessible and get maximum viewership.
- You can access ClickMeeting on smartphones and desktops by downloading their application and software.
- ClickMeeting also offers detailed reports and analytics of your event and attendees to improve your strategy for better results.
- This platform has a feature called Waiting Room With Agenda that lets you share your webinars and topics you will talk about.
Pros:
- Payment gateways integration
- Supports multiple platforms
- Paid webinars
- Edu Mode
- Free trial
Cons:
- Lack of integrations
- Lacks phone support.
- Expensive
Pricing
ClickMeeting is a Freemium Webinar Software that has a free plan and three premium plans. The Live plan costs $25 per month that only supports live meetings and webinars with up to 25 participants. The Automated plan costs $40 per month, with all Live plan features and integrations. In the end, the Enterprise plan is a custom plan. This plan’s pricing depends on your requirements.
WebinarNinja
WebinarNinja is a webinar platform that helps you create, host, and manage webinars. It is a cloud-based software that can be accessed from any device with an internet connection. WebinarNinja Webinar Platform has many unique features that make it stand out from other webinar platforms. It has been designed to make it easy for anyone to use without any technical skills. It is a complete webinar management platform that includes all the features needed for running successful webinars. It is one of the best webinar platforms for creators and coaches. It has many creators and teaching-centric features, making it best for teachers and creators.
You can host five webinars with WebinarNinja: Live Webinars, Sales, Automated Webinars, Series Webinars, and Hybrid Webinars. Hybrid and Series Webinar is the USP of the WebinarNinja. A hybrid webinar is a combination of pre-recorded and live events. In this type of webinar, you share a pre-recorded webinar with users in a live event.
WebinarNinja allows you to host webinars with a capacity of 1000 live attendees. Along with those 1000 people, you can add any ten people as presenters with permission to share their screens and cameras. All plans of WebinarNinja come with unlimited registrants and replay attendee’s ability. WebinarNinja also lets you conduct paid webinars to make money from them.
One of the best features of WebinarNinja is its collection of varied templates for varied purposes. You get different templates, such as registration pages, thank you pages, emails, etc. Furthermore, it comes with multi-language support to create registration pages or any other page in your preferred language.
Like other tools, WebinarNinja also has email automation features to send invitations and reminder emails to your contacts. It has a great feature called Add to Calendar that lets users add your event as a reminder on Google Calendar, Yahoo Calendar, Outlook, and ICal. It also has an analytical dashboard that lets you keep an eye on your webinars’ performance. WebinarNinja integrates with software like Convertkit, AWeber, MailChimp, Infusionsoft, Hubspot, Stripe, etc. Additionally, you can use Zapier to integrate it with any other software out there with ease.
Key Features Of WebinarNinja
- WebinarNinja lets you host different webinars, such as Live Webinars, Sales Webinars, Automated Webinars, Series Webinars, and Hybrid Webinars.
- One of the key features of WebinarNinja is its Hybrid Webinars that let you show recorded content in a live event.
- It easily integrates with software like Convertkit, AWeber, MailChimp, Infusionsoft, Hubspot, Stripe, etc.
- It comes with Zapier integration to integrate WebinarNinja with any other software you want in a few simple steps.
- Add to Calendar is a great feature that lets users add your event as a reminder on Google Calendar, Yahoo Calendar, Outlook, and ICal.
- WebinarNinja also has a stats & analytics tab to see important metrics, such as registered people, number of registrants, and more.
- One of the best features of WebinarNinja is its huge collection of templates, including registration pages, thank you pages, emails, and more.
- WebinarNinja has multi-function chat, which means group chat, private chat, questions, polls, and more in one platform.
- The best part about this platform is your attendees can attend your webinar on any platform without a need for software.
- WebinarNinja allows you to host different webinars with a capacity of 1000 live people and ten people as presenters.
Pros:
- Powerful features
- Enough integrations
- Paid webinars
- Hybrid webinars
- Clean and intuitive user interface
Cons:
- Limited templates
Pricing
WebinarNinja has three premium plans: Basic, Pro, and Business. The Basic plan comes at $29 per month, with a 50 live attendees limit. The Pro plan costs $90 every month, with a 100 live attendees limit. On the other hand, the Business plan comes at $199 per month with 100 live attendees.
EasyWebinar
EasyWebinar is a webinar software that allows you to create, host, and share webinars. Its features make it easy for you to host webinars without technical knowledge or experience. It is one of the best webinar platforms that offer one of the best webinar experiences for presenters and attendees. With EasyWebinar, you can conduct different webinars, such as On-Time Webinars, Evergreen Webinars, and Recurring Webinars. One of the main highlights of EasyWebinar is On-Time Webinars.
The main problem we face with webinar software is the latency which causes delays. But, this isn’t the same with EasyWebinar. EasyWebinar ensures no delay between asking a question and getting a response from the host. So, you can make sure that your attendees get answers in real-time. In addition, you can add up to 4 presenters in a live webinar. Besides this, you can make an attendee a presenter with a single click.
EasyWebinar uses TrueVoiceTechnology to reduce background noise by enabling noise reduction. It helps you offer the best listening experience to your attendees. One of the highlighting features of EasyWebinar is EasyCast, which lets you stream your webinar on Youtube and Facebook simultaneously. EasyWebinar also enables you to run automated webinars to reach a wider audience by broadcasting in your attendees’ local timezone.
You can also use EasyWebinar’s email automation features to send email notifications before and after the webinar. Similar to other webinar software platforms, this also lets you send discounts or offers during the webinar to generate more sales.
This platform also comes with customizable registration pages and many editing features. You can easily customize your registration page’s logo, colors, and texts according to your brand’s voice. You can also design a custom thank you page and customize its URL and content.
One of the highlighting features of EasyWebinar is its detailed analytics. You can check overall statistics from its analytics dashboard, such as total visitors, registered attendees, watch hours, and more. You can easily integrate this software with other popular software like AWeber, Drip, GetResponse, MailChimp, and more.
Key Features Of EasyWebinar
- EasyWebinar is one of the best webinar software with an intuitive interface and many handier features.
- One of the highlighting features of EasyWebinar is EasyCast, which lets you stream your webinar on multiple platforms simultaneously.
- EasyWebinar uses TrueVoice Technology, which reduces noise and lets your audience hear you perfectly.
- With EasyWebinar, you can host various webinars, such as On-Time Webinars, Evergreen Webinars, and Recurring Webinars.
- EasyWebinar also has a statistics dashboard to check important KPIs, such as total visitors, registered attendees, watch hours, and more.
- EasyWebinar comes with email automation features that let you send email notifications before and after the webinar.
- You can easily integrate this software with other popular software like AWeber, Drip, GetResponse, MailChimp, and more.
- EasyWebinar lets you design custom attractive thank you and registration pages and embed them anywhere on your website.
- You can integrate EasyWebinar with your favorite CRM to sync your customer data easily and in real-time.
Pros:
- Excellent customer support
- Easy-to-use
- Many advanced and useful features
- CRM integrations
Cons:
- Errors while uploading videos
- Excellent customer support, but slow
Pricing
EasyWebinar is Premium Webinar Software with three different plans: Standard, Pro, and Enterprise. The Standard plan comes at $78 for one month with features like EasyCast, chat support, etc. The Pro plan comes at $129 per month with all Standard plan features and a few additional features. At last, the Enterprise plan costs $449 per month with all Standard and Pro features and a few extra features.
GoToWebinar
GoToWebinar is a web conferencing software that provides an easy and affordable way to host webinars. GoToWebinar comes with all essential features, including live broadcasting, live chat with attendees, interactive polling, screen sharing, etc. It also allows for recording the event for later viewing on demand.
You can easily engage from any device, including smartphones. GoToWebinar is a perfect webinar platform to host large virtual events with up to 3000 people. This software also lets you host on-demand webinars and offer pre-recorded webinars in exchange for their emails. One of the highlighting features of GoToWebinar is GoToStage. GoToStage is an on-demand webinar platform that lets you share all your recordings and grow your audience. It helps you increase your webinar reach.
With this platform, you can host two types of webinars: Standard and Webcast Mode. The Standard Mode lets you host webinars with up to 1000 live attendees. On the other hand, the Webcast Mode allows you to host a webinar with up to 3000 live attendees. You can easily host any type of webinar with a few clicks. Additionally, 20,000 people can attend the pre-recorded events. Another highlighting feature of GoToWebinar is its email automation features. It allows you to send automated emails to remind registrants about your scheduled event.
Another important feature of GoToWebinar is detailed analytics. You get access to detailed analytics to check important metrics, like the number of attendees, total registrants, and more. You can use this dashboard to get detailed analytics about your events and improve them. This platform also has many interactive features like live chat, surveys, polls, videos, and more to engage with your audience.
Coming over to customization features. GoToWebinar offers enough customization features to make your registration and thank you pages more attractive. You can also change the colors, add a logo and add images to customer webinar materials as per your brand’s voice. Furthermore, this platform easily integrates with different software such as Slack, HubSpot, Google, Microsoft, Zendesk, and others.
Key Features Of GoToWebinar
- You can easily integrate with popular third-party software, including Slack, HubSpot, Google, Microsoft, Zendesk, and others.
- One of the highlighting features of GoToWebinar is GoToStage, a platform to share all your recordings and grow your audience.
- GoToWebinar lets you analyze your audience’s behavior with the help of its detailed analytics dashboard to improve simultaneously.
- One of the key features of GoToWebinar is its Webcast Mode, which allows up to 3,000 attendees to join your live stream.
- GoToWebinar comes with two different event modes: Standard with 1,000 max attendees and Web Cast mode with 3,000 max attendees.
- This platform offers many interactive options like live chat, polls, videos, and more to engage with your audience.
- Another key feature of GoToWebinar is it lets you create registration forms and quizzes to gain more leads.
- You can also change the colors, add a logo and add images to customer webinar materials as per your brand’s voice.
- GoToWebinar allows you to add up to six organizers, presenters, and panelists and manage their permissions.
Pros:
- Quick and easy
- Analytics
- Online & Local Recording
- Email automation
Cons:
- Expensive for some users
- No breakout feature
Pricing
GoToWebinar is a Premium Webinar software with four varied plans: Lite, Standard, Pro, and Enterprise. The Lite plan comes at $49 for one month. The Standard plan costs $99 per month. The Pro plan costs $199 every month. The Enterprise plan comes at $399 every month. You can check the limits and features associated with each plan from the Pricing page.
Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts is a popular unified communication tool with text, voice, or video chat functionality. It is a free text, voice, or video chat platform that lets you connect with your team and clients. Google Hangouts tool is perfect for solar users who want to host meetings instantly without any prior setup. You can simply use this tool for group video calls and connect with your team members for effective communication. The best part about Google Hangouts is that you never face audio and video quality issues. One of the highlights of Google Hangouts is that it supports unified communication, which means text, voice, or video chat. Another highlighting feature of Google Hangouts is it lets you create chat groups for effective communication. Additionally, you can easily integrate Google Hangouts with other Google Workspace apps.
Key Features Of Google Hangouts
- Google Hangouts comes with an easy-to-use interface yet beginner-friendly features that require no training.
- You can use Google Hangouts to connect with your team via text, chat, and video call for effective communication.
- Google Hangout is a freemium and web-based software. You can simply access the platform without downloading any software.
- You can easily integrate Google Hangouts with other Google Workspace apps, such as Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, etc.
- Google Hangouts is easily downloadable for Android, iOS, and Chrome for faster communication with your team.
- This platform comes with the Hangouts on Air feature that lets you organize online seminars and talk shows for free.
- You can also integrate with Google Voice to make free domestic phone calls from your devices.
Pros:
- Free
- Easy-to-use
- Integration with Google Workspace Apps
Cons:
- Not good for larger meetings
- Personal use only
Pricing
Google Hangout comes with Google Workspace plans. It has four premium plans: Starter, Standard, Plus, and Enterprise. The Starter plan costs $6 for one month for one user. The Standard plan comes at $12 for one month for one user. On the other hand, the Plus plan costs $18 for one month for one user. In the end, the Enterprise plan is a custom plan.
Zoom
Zoom is undoubtedly one of the popular webinar software platforms. You can use it for different purposes, from conducting coaching to huge conferences. Zoom comes with a lot of exceptional features. It is not only perfect for conducting webinars. You can also use Zoom to host small to larger office meetings with ease. With the help of Zoom, you can host high-quality video webinars with up to 50,000 live webinar attendees. In addition, you can add around 1000 panelists to your webinars. Furthermore, Zoom also allows you to broadcast your webinars on different platforms such as Twitch, Facebook, Youtube, and any other custom platform. This will help you increase your webinars’ reach and grow your audience.
One of the highlighting features of Zoom is its detailed analytics dashboard. You get many reporting features that help you track your webinar performance. It makes it easy to measure your engagement, analyze a webinar’s ROI, and learn about your target audience’s behavior. Zoom also allows you to create surveys to gain insights from your customers. You can also create and use surveys to get feedback from your attendees about your webinar or products. One of the best features of Zoom Video Webinars is that you can opt for a free trial and try its feature free.
Similar to other platforms, you can create custom registration forms to get more information about your leads. Additionally, you can add custom fields as per your requirements. Zoom also offers many interactive features to engage with your audience and vice versa. For instance, Zoom gives you the Q&A feature to ask questions from your attendees. Additionally, attendees can also upvote the questions you ask them. You can get an Answer Live feature to mark the question as answered. Besides this, you can also type the answer privately. Zoom easily integrates with popular CRM software, such as HubSpot, Marketo, and more.
Key Features Of Zoom
- With the help of Zoom, you can host high-quality video webinars with 50,000 live webinar attendees.
- Zoom gives you the Q&A and upvoting feature to ask questions from your attendees and let attendees upvote them.
- You can easily integrate this platform with popular CRM software like HubSpot, Marketo, and more.
- With Zoom, you also get many interactive features to engage with your audience, such as polls, surveys, Q&A, emojis, etc.
- Zoom comes with an analytics and reporting dashboard to measure your engagement, analyze webinar’s ROI, and understand your target audience’s behavior.
- One of the highlighting features of Zoom is that it allows you to broadcast your webinars on different platforms such as Twitch, Facebook, and Youtube.
- Zoom allows you to create user registration forms, add custom fields to your registration form, and collect as much information as possible.
- It also has other essential features, such as Screen Recording, Screen Sharing, Presentations, etc.
Pros:
- Easy-to-use for people already using Zoom meetings
- Q&A Upvoting
- Feature-rich whiteboard tool
Cons:
- No automated webinars
- Quite expensive
- Webinar reminder emails are not optimized
Pricing
Zoom is a Freemium Webinar Platform that comes with a free version as well as paid version. You can create a free account from the official website. With the free plan, you can host a 40 minutes meeting with up to 100 attendees. Besides this, it has four premium plans: Pro, Business, Business Plus, and Enterprise. The Pro plan comes at ₹13,200 per year for one user. The Business plan comes at ₹18,000 per year for one user. The Business Plus costs $250 yearly for one year. At last, the Enterprise plan is a custom plan.
Cisco Webex
Cisco Webex is again a popular cloud-based video calling that lets you host and manage webinars in a few steps. This platform again comes with many advanced features that make video conferencing and webinars a lot easier. Cisco Webex isn’t only limited to video calling. It is an all-in-one software that allows you to video call, call, and message from a single platform. It comes with an intuitive design that requires no prior training to use this platform. This tool also comes with easy and interactive audience tools for polling and Q&A. You can use these to engage with your audience and vice versa. One of the highlighting features of Webex is that it lets you host large virtual events with up to 100,000 attendees and reach every corner of the world.
Key Features Of Cisco Webex
- You can freely use Cisco Webex for calls, meetings, meetings, polling, events, and webinars with ease.
- Cisco Webex lets you host large virtual events with up to 100,000 attendees and reach a wide audience.
- This platform also enables you to create a smoother workflow by sharing multimedia, such as files, images, videos, etc.
- Cisco Webex also comes with polls and a Q&A tool to interact and engage with your audience for better connection.
- You can integrate Cisco Webex with popular platforms, including Apple, Slack, Microsoft, Google, and more.
- Cisco Webex features end-to-end encryption that ensures your data and conversion are safe on the internet.
Pros:
- Free
- End-to-end encryption
- Up to 100,000 live attendees
- Screen-sharing feature
- Interactive tools
- Collaboration features
Cons:
- Low video quality on an unstable connection
- Expensive
Pricing
Cisco Webex is a Freemium Webinar Software Platform. It has a free plan and two premium plans. You can create a free account from their website and start using the basic features. Besides this, it has three premium plans: Starter, Business, and Enterprise. The Starter plan costs ₹1,049 for one license per month. The Business plan costs ₹2099 for one license per month. In the end, the Enterprise plan is a custom plan, and its pricing varies based on your requirements. You can check each plan’s features from the official pricing page.
What Makes a Webinar Software Great?
We always look for different features in webinar software. The use-case of getting a webinar software varies from person to person. Sometimes, we get a webinar platform to host client meetings. Sometimes, we get the software to host automated or live webinars to engage with our audience. Hence, the features and opinions always vary based on our use case. Yet, there are a few things that you should always consider while searching for webinar software.
1. Free Trial
It is beneficial to choose a webinar platform that offers a free trial. So you can test all the premium features before making the purchase. A free trial lets you try all the premium features for a specific time. Based on your experience, you can decide whether it is a suitable option for your needs. Sometimes it becomes tough to choose tools based on the formal specifications. So, we always recommend selecting a tool that permits you to use the tool for free for a few days. These days, many webinar software platforms offer a free trial to get customers into their sales funnel.
2. Audio & Video Quality
Audio and video quality is another most important factor you should consider when choosing a webinar platform. It matters a lot when conducting a webinar. If you aren’t properly visible or audible to your audience, this can hamper your experience. Bad audio and video quality can hinder you from delivering your message to the audience. Hence, audio and video quality are one of the most important things that make webinar software good. You need to ensure that it uses the latest and robust technology to let you conduct webinars smoothly. For example, many platforms use TrueVoice Technology to reduce background noise by enabling noise reduction. You should also ensure that video and audio quality stay the same even when your connection isn’t stable. You should always select a webinar software that delivers high-quality live video and audio quality under all conditions.
3. Ease Of Access
Another factor that makes webinar software great is its easy access. These days, all webinar software supports multiple platforms. You can easily download them on your smartphone as well as desktop. But, now, webinar software has made accessing webinars easier and smoother. You don’t need to download any third-party application. You can enter the webinar from your mobile browser. When choosing the best webinar platform, you must ensure it is easily accessible. It is flexible enough to make your audience work easier and smoother. Make sure the attendees can join your webinars from their smartphones, TV, tablet, desktop, etc., without any issue.
4. Recording Features
Your selected webinar platform should offer a recording feature to record your live webinars. With the recording feature, you can record your webinar, create on-demand webinars, and use them to generate leads even after the webinar. First, check whether your selected software offers a recording feature. Now, if it offers this feature, then what are the limitations they have imposed. For instance, some webinar platforms let you record a webinar only for a particular time.
You need to pay extra bucks or upgrade your plan if you want to record more than the specified time. So, make sure to check this. Another thing you should consider is that the software offers enough cloud storage to easily store all your recorded webinars. Some software offers unlimited cloud storage, while some offer limited storage. You also need to check this. In addition, it should also have an option to download your recording anytime. You should also be able to customize recordings according to your needs – editable frame rate, layout, quality, etc.
5. Collaboration Features
Webinars are great for interacting with your audience, and collaboration features help make your webinars more engaging and interactive. Your selected webinar platform should have enough collaboration features to let your audience interact with you. It should have basic interactive tools, like chat, reactions, etc. Most importantly, it should have a Q&A feature to let attendees ask questions from the panelists to make the webinar more interactive. You should also look for more advanced features, such as breakout rooms, to let you split the main meeting room into smaller ones. You can also look for more collaboration features, such as surveys and polls, to increase audience engagement and collect feedback.
6. Analytics
Analytics is one of the most important things you should look at and make a great webinar platform. It is a key component of any webinar platform. It helps you understand your webinar’s performance and make necessary changes to improve it. Many analytics tools are available in the market, but not all are equally good. You must choose the best one that helps you understand your audience and their behavior. The software doesn’t have to provide complex data, making the analytics more confusing. It should provide basic and essential data that helps you understand your webinar’s performance.
7. 24×7 Customer Support
Customer support is essential to look for when choosing a webinar software platform. If you are new to these types of software, then customer support would play a huge role. You will need them the most to solve your queries and technical errors. So, it is important to choose a webinar software that offers the best customer support. It should have 24/7 customer support with a fast response time. Most importantly, they should be capable enough to solve your technical issues.
8. Security Features
Webinars happen online, and the online world isn’t safe every time. It’s your responsibility to make sure that your attendees’ data is safe and secure. Hence, you should always choose a webinar platform with all essential security features. You need to check what kind of security and protection is applied to all your meetings and webinars.
9. Third-Party Integrations
Third-party integrations are a way to connect your webinar software with other applications. This is done by using APIs and SDKs. You should check that it integrates with all tools, especially CRMs. The third-party integration with CRM systems will allow you to import leads from the CRM system into your webinar software. Hence, always check the Integrations page of your selected webinar platform. On that page, you will see all the integrations that come with the software.
You should consider many more features when choosing the software, such as background changer, background importer, voice-related features, and more. In addition, there are a few red flags you should consider.
- Confusing downloads and add-ons
- Poor customer service
- Technical difficulties with sound and video
- Difficult to use dashboards
- Zero integrations with tools, especially CRMs
Which Is the Best Webinar Software Platform?
Now, it’s high time to choose the best webinar platform for your business according to your needs. Before heading forward, you need to jot down all your requirements. After figuring this out, you can move further.
Suppose you want to host large webinars with up to 50,000 to 1,00,000 live attendees. Then, in this case, we would recommend Zoom and Cisco Webex. Both platforms are popular for hosting huge webinars. However, you won’t get some essential features on these two platforms, such as on-demand webinars, etc. To be safe, you can create a free account or opt for a free trial to test the features and functionality.
If you are looking for a feature-packed yet affordable webinar platform, then Riverside and GetResponse is the perfect pick. These two tools come with commendable features and at an affordable price. One of the main highlights of Riverside is that it lets you record both audio and video in high quality at the same time. The best part about GetResponse is that it enables you to host unlimited webinars with zero limitations. Therefore, you can choose as per your needs.
You can also check other Webinar Software, especially WebinarNinja, EasyWebinar, and GoToWebinar.
